Bill McKelway '70 to be Inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame

By Julie CampbellApril 6, 2016

Congratulations to Bill McKelway, a 1970 graduate of Washington and Lee University. On April 7, at a festive ceremony in Richmond, the veteran newspaper reporter is being inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.

Bill started working at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1971, the year after he departed W&L. Upon his retirement last fall after 44 years at the paper, he told his colleagues, “I’ve loved every day. Even the worst days, because they make the best days better. Don’t forget the opportunity this work offers to bring hope and joy and a listening ear to people left behind.”

Bill is the perfect candidate for the Hall of Fame. As Paige Mudd, the paper’s editor, said in an article about his retirement, “He is a masterful storyteller and a kind soul. His compassion comes through in his relationships with colleagues and sources and in the richly detailed tales he weaves. There’s just no one like Bill.”

Bill joins a pantheon of Hall of Fame inductees with W&L connections, including former professors Ronald MacDonald, Ham Smith and Louis Hodges, to name a few, plus alumni Mike Allen ’86, Charley McDowell ’48 and Lloyd Dobyns ’57, to name a few more. Here’s the complete list of Hall of Fame members dating back to 1986, when Roger Mudd ’50 and Tom Wolfe ’51 were inducted and got the W&L connection off to a great start.